Survival
by Hya-chan
Summary: A new group of Leafe Knights looking for their Pretear, assistance found in the most unlikely place, new and old evil combine forces to bring about the destruction of the world. Please R


I don't own Pretear but I do own my characters. If I get reviews, which I hope I do, I'll post more chapters. I really want to continue this story but if other people don't like it then I won't. I hope that you do.

Leafeania

A four year old looks into the crestfallen face of her mother. Simply asking a question had invoked the look of utter sadness. That is a face that, no matter how she tried, she'd not forget. A look of pure horror passed over the girl's features as her mother collapsed into uncontrollable sobs. The young child tried to console her, but to no avail.

A young woman straightens into a sitting position in fear of the dream that just occurred once again. Her mother, the only person that really ever cared for her, had been subjected to so many horrible things. The young child, of the age of four, would not have understood, but the young woman, of the age of 18, understood much. Sweat covered her body and plastered her auburn hair to her face. Her obsidian eyes blinked in an effort to clear her foggy mind. Glancing over at the clock she realized that she had only been asleep for a few hours. Not a good way to start her day, of course there were many other, some more unpleasant, ways to start it. Many of these she'd already encountered. She struggled to get her sheets under control so they would release her body which, they had so efficiently, entangled. After a few moments she freed herself from her imprisonment. It had been awhile since she had been haunted by this dream. It was five years ago to be precise. The day her mother died. Stepping onto the cold wooden floor she made her way to the kitchen. The coffee pot could be heard doing its usual morning duties. She absently wondered what the other Leafe Knights were doing. Focusing on the sound of the world she realized that most of them weren't up yet. The only one, other then herself, who seemed to be even slightly active, was Ashley.

Ashley was the Leafe Knight of rain. She was also Isabel's best friend. They had grown up together along with some other Knights. Ashley and Isabel grew closer as Isabel and her mother grew farther apart. Ashley was a slender red-head, much like herself, but she was more outgoing then Isabel. The only difference between them, other then the drastic difference in their personalities, was their eye color. Isabel's were the obsidian her father's were said to have been. Ashley's were the purest of blues. Of course eye color really has nothing to do with the person. I, the author, am just explaining so you can get a better image of my characters. In case you were wondering, Isabel is the Leafe Knight of song. She hummed softly to herself as she poured a steaming cup of coffee that the coffee pot had so graciously provided her with. Sipping it slowly she reached for the phone and dialed Ashley's number. After a few moments a drowsy hello was heard.

"I would say something sentimental like, 'I'm sorry did I wake you?', but I knew you were up and that's why I called." Isabel waited for Ashley's mind to comprehend what she had just said.

"Isa what are you doing up at this hour?"

"I could ask you the same thing but since you asked first I will answer that question as best I can in one word, nightmare. Now it's your turn."

"Oh yes Isa that was wonderfully brief. I'm up at this hour because I can't sleep."

"Insomnia's a bitch." Isabel chuckled. "It's hard to conquer but I have faith in you. Have you tried a glass of warm milk?"

"Yes I have Ms. Smarty pants. Of course I've been up for hours now."

"I know I can hear the exhaustion in your voice."

"Well thank you. Is there any particular reason why you called?"

"Yes actually there is. I've been thinking about the other Knights, more importantly their Pretear. I've been wondering why we haven't found ours yet."

"Quit worrying about it, it'll happen. Besides, what's that old saying? A watched pot never boils."

"Well at the rate it's going all the water's going to evaporate before it has the chance."

"No it won't and I'll make sure of that. After all water is my specialty."

"So I've been told." Isabel sighed heavily. "How come you and the other Leafe Knights get all the cool powers? Yours is rain, Megan's is earth, Miranda's is flame, Valerie's is air, Allison's is reflection, and Victoria's is snow. I have a crappy power."

"Isa you have an awesome power. You're the Leafe Knight of song. It's what you do. Your music inspires others to do great things. You're wonderful…and besides without you we wouldn't have someone to put up a barrier that protects innocent lives." Isabel sighed through the phone.

"I guess you're right. In the meantime though we best get some sleep. We have a big day tomorrow. We are in Joseph after all."

"That's the spirit. Before we hang up I have a serious question to ask you."

"Alright shoot. It can't be worse then anything we've already talked about right?"

"Okay. Did you invite, or are you thinking about inviting Sasame and the other Leafe Knights to the play?" Isabel took a few minutes to consider the question. She wasn't the type to answer without careful thought first.

"To tell you the truth I hadn't really thought about it. I mean I had thought about inviting Sasame, but every time I thought it I immediately dismissed it."

"Why? I'm sure he would love to come."

"Yeah I think so too."

"But..."

"But I can't work up the gull to ask. We all know how well I take rejection."

"Not well at all."

"My point exactly."

"It's not like he's rejecting you. He'd just be saying no to coming to the play."

"Why don't you ask them tomorrow and I'll go with you."

"No I have a better idea. How about YOU tell them tomorrow and I'll go with you." Isabel sighed in defeat.

"Fine have it your way. Of course if we don't get any sleep then we'll never make it to tomorrow anyway."

"Too true, too true, we'd be walking zombies. So I'll see you tomorrow?"

"It's a date." With that Isabel placed the receiver back on the hook and headed back to her room. The world had seemed to quiet down since her little conversation with Ashley. It was a little strange but Isabel really didn't dwell on it too much. They would all meet up in the morning and resume their search for the Pretear. Laying back down Isabel focused on the little noises that she could hear and soon fell back asleep. She woke at the first ring of the phone but didn't reach it until the third. Raising the receiver to her ear she mumbled "Yeah?

"Isa, it's time to start searching for the Pretear again. I'm surprised you're still in bed. After all the telemarketers start calling at 9."

"Don't have to worry about them," Isabel mumbled, "Sensitive hearing. If they call I can sue." She heard Miranda laugh on the other end of the phone.

"Well aren't you just the lucky bum. Anyway get ready; we have a big day ahead of us." They both mumbled a quick "bye" before hanging up. Isabel forced her feet to walk into her bedroom ignoring the coffee pot that had already started making the fresh batch of coffee for that morning. The issue on her mind at the moment was what she was going to wear. Sifting through her drawers and closet she finally put together her outfit. Her ensemble for the day was a simple t-shirt and jeans. Nothing too fancy, but comfortable. With that she made her way to the kitchen to fix herself a cup of coffee. As she sat down at the table with her cup the phone rang. Sighing heavily she stood and got it.

"Hello?"

"We have an emergency!" Isabel sighed again. It was Victoria, she always exaggerated everything.

"What's the emergency Tory?"

"We found the Pretear." Isabel spit out the coffee she had in her mouth.

"Ex…Excuse me?"

"We found the Pretear. Ashley says to hurry."

"Alright I'll be right there." Isabel hung up as quickly as she could and disappeared to where she sensed her friends. Appearing next to Ashley she glanced at them. Tory was standing there next to a boy holding onto one of his arms. She was now in her Leafe Knight outfit. Her outfit was an off the shoulder dress, it was a teal color with a Celtic design at the top, bottom, and around her sleeves. Her shoes were simple sandals. Her hair was longer then it was when they were among the humans. Ashley was next to her. She wore black slippers, her pajama pants and a tank top.

"I take it you didn't have time to change…" She laughed at Ashley's tired expression.

"It's about time you got here, I've been waiting for like twenty minutes. You didn't even have the decency to call me." Isabel held up her hands in a sign of surrender.

"Hey totally not my fault. I haven't even had my morning coffee yet…well I have the taste of my morning coffee in my mouth but other then that…" Ashley was glaring daggers at her.

"What?!"

"Stay here with Tory I'm gonna go get changed and inform the other Knights." With that Ashley was gone. Isabel turned to Victoria and laughed.

"Yeah it's a horrible shame that we don't have that 'communication through mind' trick that the other Leafe Knights have." Victoria nodded and passed the boy's arm to her friend.

"If you don't mind Val's coming and I haven't had breakfast yet." Isabel assured her friend that she would be fine and watched as Victoria took her leave. She then turned her attention to the boy whose arm she held captive. Looking slightly bed ridden himself she could only assume that they had dragged him out and the only thing he had time to do was get into a change of clothes. His tousled chocolate hair reflected the sun indicating that he had yet to shower and clean the grease from it. Or that he used shampoo that specifically made his hair shine. She hoped it was the first. He kept his head down as if he were ashamed of something. Trying not to dwell on it she quickly went over the rest of him. He was slim but not to the point that you could see ribs though he was definitely slimmer then she was. His arms were buff in the cute way, not the kind that, when flexed, they destroy a shirt. The last thing she noticed was his legs. They were like chicken legs. Holding back the laughter that had suddenly bubbled up inside her she went back to waiting for Valerie. Wondering where the air Knight was, for she was hardly late for anything, Isabel observed the people around her. None of them seemed to notice or just didn't care that she was standing in a spot she hadn't been a while ago and was keeping a boy against his will by his arm. Humans had weird thought processes though and probably thought nothing of it. Was this normal for humans? Valerie suddenly appeared beside her.

"Hey Isa, sorry I'm late but I just got the message." Valerie was dressed in her Knight outfit as Tory had been. Val's outfit was white and consisted of a no sleeve top and nice dress pants that had blue fairies dancing across it.

"S'okay. I had nothing better to do then drink my coffee anyway. Why are you in your uniform?" The Knights had always referred to their normal outfits as uniforms. It was what they wore while working after all.

"I'm not really sure. All Tory told me was that we found our Pretear and that I should wear my uniform." Isabel scoffed.

"I don't really think that this called for our uniforms." She sighed. That was Tory for you. Granted finding their Pretear was a big deal. Actually it was a humongous deal but it didn't call for them to parade around the city, with their Pretear in toe, in their work attire. Yeah because that totally wouldn't draw attention to them. "Val please go home and get changed into something normal looking. I'd rather people NOT know that we're different." There was a flash of light and Valerie was standing next to her wearing a pair of faded jeans, tennis shoes, and a t-shirt that stated 'You're not welcome.'.

"Is that better?" She gave Isabel an exasperated look.

"Thank you. I'm sure we don't want to embarrass our Pretear more then we already have."

"Pretear….what is that?" Both females turned startled gazes to the young man that they were holding captive. This was the first time he had spoken since they had arrived. Neither of them really knew how to respond at first. Isabel recovered from the shock first.

"What was that?"

"That other woman, the one that bumped into me on my way to the market, she used that word too. What does it mean?" Isabel looked to Valerie for help.

"Oh no he's talking to you. You're better at this then I am. It's your gift after all."

"And you all know that I hate speaking in front of people." She glared heatedly at Valerie who only shrugged. "Well you see we really shouldn't talk about this out in the open. It'll attract more attention than we are now."

"What attention?" Again Valerie got glared at.

"My point is that we don't want anyone to stop and ask us what's going on because we can't really tell them what's going on. It's not real easy to explain and they'd think we're crazy just like I'm sure that you will once you hear what we have to say. Just hang tight until the others get here and we'll explain everything to you. I promise."

"You're rambling."

"I do that when I'm nervous." Isabel smiled evilly at Valerie. She would get her back. It was only a matter of time. Maybe a nice wake up call at 5 tomorrow morning would do the trick. Today just wasn't turning out to be her day. "And to think that I thought today would be a perfectly normal day. I'd get up, hang out with you guys, then go to the RRCA with Ashley to put on Joseph. I never expected that we would actually FIND our Pretear."

"Well I did tell you that a watched pot never boils." The boy next to Isabel shrieked at the appearance of Ashley. She was wearing black shorts, a blue t-shirt with white stripes, and tennis shoes.

"Welcome back. So has everyone been informed?" She nodded her head. "Good." Handing the boy's arm to Ashley she smiled. "Then I guess I'll be off. You two can figure out what to do with him. I haven't had my morning coffee yet and if I put it off any longer someone is going to die." With that she disappeared back to her apartment. Walking to the kitchen she recovered her mug and popped it into the microwave. While she was waiting on it she scoured her cupboards for any semblance of food. Finding nothing that interested her or her stomach she decided that after her usual three cups of coffee she'd be heading for the local café. She hoped that Go would be working today. It'd be so much easier if he was alone and she asked him if they wished to go. She dreaded talking to Sasame. He was actually the last person that she wished to see this morning. She had, had a crush on him since they were kids. She had never told him of course but that was besides the point. She hadn't really wanted to speak to him at all since they had departed their world. It didn't help that they had found their first Pretear and she had known that even though the woman hadn't loved Sasame he had loved her. That was what hurt her the most. So she had gone about her days trying to forget him. Not an easy feat. The buzzer on the microwave interrupted her thoughts to let her know that her coffee was warm. Suddenly she didn't feel like coffee. Leaving the cup where it was she grabbed her keys, purse, and a light jacket from the coat rack and left her apartment. She knew better then to leave herself alone with her own thoughts for too long. They constantly got her in trouble. Nearly running to the café she took a seat at her usual table outside. Go was there in an instant.

"Hey there. Haven't seen you in a while. Why the long face?" Isabel tried to smile at him. She managed a small one. Go always made her feel better.

"I'm fine. Just didn't sleep well, ya know? That and with the lack of food in my house my stomach was growing upset with just the coffee. It's nice to see you today Go but isn't it a little early for you to be at work?" He blushed slightly rubbing the back of his head. Something that he only did when he was nervous.

"Well you see, we haven't sensed anything in a while and so Sasame figured that it was okay for us all to relax a bit so I told my boss that it would be okay if I worked the mornings for a while."

"Oh I see. So what's new with you?" She had inwardly cringed when Go had mentioned Sasame.

"Nothing much really. Himeno is getting the hang of being a Pretear though. What's new with you?" Isabel smiled. Himeno was their new Pretear. She had a thing for Hayate and visa versa. Isabel didn't mind Himeno. She was a lot nicer then their last Pretear had been.

"Well I got disturbed about 30 minutes ago while having my morning coffee to see what Tory wanted."

"Did she drag you out of bed for no reason again?"

"No this time she wasn't exaggerating at least I don't think so anyway. She said that she's found our Pretear." Go stood there for a minute not fully grasping what she had just said. After another minute he finally asked, "Pretear?"

"Yeah our Pretear which means that we can fight right along side you guys again. Won't that be splendid?" Go's reaction wasn't really one that she had been expecting. Instead of being happy for them, being shocked that they had actually found their Pretear, or being upset at her suggestion that they needed help, Go just shrugged and began to walk back into the café to get her usual.

"Had to happen sometime I guess." With that he was inside the café. Obviously he hadn't fully comprehended what she had said yet. He brought her out a caramel sundae and a cup of coffee. Setting it on her table he began to walk back inside again. She could practically see the gears in his head turning as they were deciphering what she had said. She smiled and sipped her coffee watching as he paused at the door. Oh he was almost to the point of understanding. All of a sudden his back straightened and she realized that it had clicked. He hastily made his way back to her table. As he made it she took a bite of her sundae.

"Now did I hear you correctly when you said that you had found your Pretear?"

"Yes Go. You had heard me correctly. We found our Pretear this morning. That's why I had been called from my house."

"That's wonderful news. I'm happy for you. So what are you guys going to do?"

"Whatever do you mean?"

"I mean is she going to live with one of you guys? Are you going to move in with her to make sure that she's safe? I mean we have Himeno under constant surveillance so that nothing bad happens to her."

"I get what you're saying Go but you must be crazy if you think he's going to be staying with any of us. We went through that before."

"Wait HE?!"

"Yes Go he, as in male, as in someone of the same gender as you and opposite gender as us. We were hoping that it would be a female this time but no such luck."

"Man that really sucks."

"Yes it does. We were hoping that we wouldn't have to worry about what happened last time happening again but it seems that we might not have a choice."

"How is that going by the way?" Isabel thought about it. They hadn't seen hide nor hair of Nicholi since they had banished him to their world. They had done what the other Knights had. He had been trapped there and had broken free with the other. Theirs was causing trouble. If worse came to worse then they would team up to take care of one problem then the other. They knew that some of the demon seeds (larvae) had been his and not the princess of disaster. Try as they might, however, they couldn't find the prince. Well he was the prince of darkness to their princess of disaster. They all desperately hoped that they wouldn't team up.

"It's fine. We still have no leads and no way of finding him. It seems that the only thing that we can do is wait. I've suggested me going home alone but the others wouldn't hear of it."

"Why is that? You could take him."

"I'm the one that he wants Go. They'd never leave me there by myself. They'd never place me in danger like that."

"But you would place yourself in that kind of danger to save your friends." Both turned to look at the owner of the voice. It belonged to none other then the person Isabel was trying to avoid.

"Good day Sasame." He nodded. "As you know its much bigger then that. It's not just my friends that I'd be saving it'd be the entire world."

"How can you be so sure of that? I mean for all you know he could turn you against us and that would do more harm then good." They both looked at Sasame with equally blank expressions on their faces. "Let me clarify. If he had your powers, the rest of us would be forced to harm you. If he used your powers against us then that would be more of a fight then we actually want." 'So it has nothing to do with caring about me. He's just worried that I'll whip their butts and that it'll heavily affect my friends.'

"Hey Sasame you know that we'd all be devastated if anything happened to her too. Especially if it was by our hands." Isabel smiled at Go who was now avoiding her gaze.

"Thank you Go. Anyway I think that I better get going." She glanced down at the half eaten sundae and empty cup of coffee. She hadn't remembered getting past the first bite of her sundae and sip of her coffee but then again, she argued, her mind had been on other things. Digging some money out of her coat pocket she left it on the table and walked away from the pair. She needed to get back to the others and the Pretear. She sensed them and disappeared. Reappearing at Ashley's house she was rather surprised to find everyone else there.

"So what'd I miss?" Miranda glanced over at her and let out a frustrated sigh.

"He won't talk to any of us. Actually if Val hadn't been there when he talked to you then we'd believe that he was mute."

"So not a lot then." Tory glared at her.

"This is all your fault. If you hadn't left us with him then we wouldn't be in this situation."

"What are you talking about? It's not MY fault he doesn't like you." Tory stood from her spot on the couch and approached Isabel. She was stopped a short distance away by an arm belonging to Alli.

"It's not her fault that he won't speak with us."

"It is her fault. She's the convincing one of the group. She's the one that people listen to."

"You're just jealous that all you do is freeze people when you get angry." Victoria changed her direction and advanced toward Megan.

"Oh you think that you're much better 'earth child'? Well let's see him talk to you."

"Well someone's a bitch today. Weren't you the one that called all of us, waking us up might I add, because you had found the Pretear?" Valerie had her hand to her forehead as a sign of the headache she was about to get.

"Well EXCUSE me. I thought you wanted to know. I thought we all WANTED to find the Pretear."

"And we do but that's no reason to take it out on Isabel!" Ashley rarely spoke against anyone. She hated confrontation so everyone was surprised when she spoke.

"Especially since we have." Added Miranda from where she was sitting.

"Hey lets not pick on Tory. We know that she was wrong and she does as well. Let's leave it at that."

"I don't need you to defend me!"

"Don't yell at her!" The battle was really starting to heat up. Everyone started yelling at everyone else. Isabel had covered her ears in an attempt to dull the noise but she only succeeded in making them echo in her hands. Finally when she could stand it no more she screamed out in frustration at the top of her lungs. The room settled down almost immediately.

"What's wrong with everyone? Did you not get enough sleep last night? I mean come on. We never fight." She let her power of persuasion into her voice. She wondered if it would help or just make everyone more upset. "I mean come on, we accomplished something great today. We found our Pretear, that's what really matters. You're probably scaring the poor boy more then he already was." Isabel made her way over to the boy. He was practically cowering in the corner and looked smaller then he had when she had seen him earlier. His face was covered by hair again. She placed her hand under his chin to raise his head. Leaning back she smiled. His eyes were teal. A beautiful color that made his features more feminine then she thought it should. "There now, that's better. It's nice to meet you. My name is Isabel." There, the start of a conversation. Whether he responded or not was up to him. After a few minutes of not saying anything she turned to look at the others for assistance.

"I'm Allison. You may call me Alli."

"I'm Miranda." Ashley raised her hand.

"Ashley here."

"Victoria. My friends call me Tory. You're not my friend you can call me Victoria." Megan elbowed her.

"I'm Megan."

"And I'm Valerie. You can call me Val…or Valerie whatever you feel like that day."

"Most of us don't call her at all." That seemed to loosen up the atmosphere at least among the Knights. They all felt that they could breathe a little easier.

"Kiyoshi." Everyone turned their attention to the boy. It was the first time he had spoken since Isabel had left him. She smiled down at the boy that had finally given them their hope back.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Kiyoshi. Now tell me, why are you so afraid of us?" It took him a few minutes as if he was considering what to say. He began to shake violently as if cold but the Knights all knew better, he was frightened, terrified if the ferocity of his shaking was any indication of the feeling.

" I...I had just woken up, like I usually do, and went out to get the paper. I was rather surprised to see that I had beaten our usual paper girl there. As I waited I noticed a figure coming down the street with the bag of papers slung across her shoulders. I could tell from the way that she was running that she was new to the route and so, was running behind. When she got to my house she stopped to catch her breath and handed me the paper. Our hands came in contact with one another which caused a bright light to erupt from them. I, of course, blinded. She took that opportunity to grab me. Then that other girl showed up and now I'm here. I don't understand what's going on. Who are you people? Why did you bring me here? What do you want with me?" His shaking had settled a little when he was recounting the events of the morning. When the questions hit the shaking returned with a vengeance. Isabel left the boy there for a moment to turn on her friends.

"You mean to tell me that you didn't tell him ANYTHING?!"

"As we said before he wouldn't speak with us."

"Yeah and why should we talk to him if he's not going to be courteous and return the favor?"

"Um I dunno maybe because it's our job to let him know what's going on. He needs to know what to do so that he can survive. We don't need a repeat of last time." Isabel was really starting to get a headache. Glancing at the clock she realized that she and Ashley had to be at practice in half an hour and didn't have time to stand there arguing with the others. "Look as much as I would love to stay and fight with you all day Ashley and I have things that we have to do so please excuse us." With that Isabel sent herself back to her house to mentally and physically prepare herself for the day. 'Because it sure can't get much worse.'

AN: Alright so that's the end of this chapter. I hope you like it. Please review.


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